PHOENIX β A conviction and sentence for child prostitution doesnβt necessarily require that an actual child be involved, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday.
The justices rejected the arguments by Francis F. Kraps that he could not be sentenced to both enhanced and consecutive prison terms because the βchildβ he had arranged to meet at a Prescott-area motel actually turned out to be an undercover police officer.
Justice Ann Scott Timmer, writing for the unanimous court, said Arizona law makes it a crime to engage in prostitution with a minor if the person knows β or believes β the youth was 17 or younger. That, she said, makes it legally irrelevant that Kraps was actually conversing online with someone who was older.
Kraps was one of several people arrested in 2014 in a βstingβ operation. Officers posed online as 16-year-old runaways willing to engage in sexual conduct for money. When a person showed up at the hotel room and met the βchildβ they were arrested. By law, those convicted of such offenses must be sentenced to at least seven years in prison and can be incarcerated for up to 21 years. There also is no possibility of probation.
But in a pretrial ruling, Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Jennifer Campbell concluded the lack of an actual juvenile meant the mandatory sentence does not apply.
